A 96-year-old Holocaust survivor vows to outlive Russian President Vladimir Putin after his war forced her to flee her home in Ukraine.
Metro reports Anastasia Gulej said she has been forced to live through horrific atrocities in the past and Russia's invasion in Ukraine won't stop her.
"I survived Hitler, survived Stalin and I will survive this a***hole Putin too!" she said.
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The 96-year-old fled to Germany after she made the difficult decision to leave her home because it close to the airport, which has become a target for Russian missiles.
Gulej was only a teenager when she was sent to Auschwitz during World War II. She was held captive at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp while Anne Frank was there too.
It’s estimated that more than 50,000 people perished at the Bergen-Belsen camp, according to the Holocaust Encyclopedia.
Despite nearly 80 years since the war, Gulej is scarred by the experience as she still can’t ‘forget a single minute' of her time at the concentration camp.
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She even said upon her release: “I didn’t even have enough strength to feel joy.”
Gulej spoke at the 77th anniversary of Buchenwald’s liberation earlier this month and condemned Putin’s actions.
“I have no words for what the Hitler admirers from the Kremlin did in Bucha and Mariupol,” she said after 400 dead bodies were discovered in towns after Russian forces left.
She added: “[It's a] shame that survivors of the Shoah have to suffer like this at the end of their difficult lives.”
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Her biography was set to be released this month; however, it's been pushed back and will include a new chapter about her escape from Ukraine to Germany.
ABC News reports that more than four million people have fled Ukraine since Russia's invasion in late February.
The Ukrainian city of Kreminna is currently under siege as Russian armed forces continue to intensify their attacks and advance further into the Donbas region.
Governor Serhiy Hayday said Ukraine's southeast region was being targeted from all sides.
"They moved in but our defenders had to retreat," he said, according to the BBC.
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"The enemy was shelling every metre of our defence line."
ABC News reports that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, claimed ‘the second phase of the war has started’ amid Russian troops honing in Donbas.
Topics: News, Russia, Ukraine, Vladimir Putin, Politics
Charisa Bossinakis